How long should your phone ring, asks Trai

Kolkata: How long should a phone ring before a disconnection? That’s the focus of the sector regulator's latest consultation paper, wherein the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has sought views on the maximum call ringing time permissible to ensure optimal usage of phone network resources, including spectrum.
Trai has also sought feedback on whether mobile users must be given the option to customise the ringing duration to improve customer convenience, and possible ways to do so.

Maximum ring-time is now configured in the phone network, beyond which the network releases the connection forcefully, if the called-party does not answer.

“The maximum time allowed to answer calls takes on more importance in mobile networks as the alerting phase engages scarce radio spectrum resources,” said Trai in a discussion paper, titled `Duration Alert for Called Party,’ issued Monday.

More so, since mobile users carry their handsets in person, & can respond much quicker, unlike in case of an incoming landline call where the instrument is likely to be away from the user.

Ringing or alerting for a long time, when the called-party is unlikely to answer, Trai said, “would lead to non-optimal uitilisation of resources”.

But the regulator also conceded that if ring time is configured “on the lower side,” it could undermine customer experience, especially if the duration is lower than the time usually taken to answer a call.

A particular telco, it said, had reduced the call ringing span to 20 seconds, a scenario that could impact the network performance of other mobile and landline operators with longer durations, building a case of bringing uniformity to the call ringing span.

Ring time in mobile networks is typically, 30-45 seconds, while for landline networks, it hovers between 60 and 120 seconds.

Accordingly, Trai, in its discussion paper has sought feedback on whether guidelines are needed to configure call ringing time uniformly. Whether cutting-edge new age technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) should be adopted to determine appropriate ringing spans to separate classes of telecom users.

The sector regulator has also sought views on whether steps ought to be taken to enable customers to distinguish between commercial and regular calls by their ringing duration to boost user convenience.

The deadlines for stakeholder comments and counter-comments for Trai’s new discussion paper are September 30 and October 7 respectively.